PEKIN — The first time he appeared in court for allegedly making methamphetamine, Christopher Nunnally told the judge he wasn't in a motel room when a small fire sprang from the makeshift drug laboratory.

Nunnally's next appearance in the case will reveal how many years he can expect to serve in federal prison for the crime.

Nunnally, 23, of Pekin likely will serve more than the minimum five-year term for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He pleaded guilty to that charge last week in U.S. District Court in Peoria.

He is to be sentenced April 21, about a month after Kittra Sarver, 24, of Pekin is to receive her sentence of between five and nine years for her role in the meth lab police discovered last spring at the Mineral Springs Motel. Sarver pleaded guilty to her conspiracy charge last month.

Next month, Brian Broadfield, 37, of Washington is to tell U.S. District Judge James Shadid whether he will seek a trial or plead guilty in the case.

Police identified him as the ring's alleged leader. After a psychiatric exam, he recently was judged to have been mentally fit at the time of his arrest and competent now to aid in his defense.

Two others also were prosecuted in the case.

Jesse Pfanz, 24, of Pekin was sentenced in Tazewell County Circuit Court to three years in prison. Theresa Matthews, 28, of Washington was accepted into a new program in the federal court's Central Illinois District that's designed to give non-violent drug defendants the chance to avoid prison by completing intensive drug therapy and court supervision.

Pekin police arrested the five after the fire in the motel room last April led to the discovery of the meth-making lab. Sarver was found with her two young children in the room, according to the charges.

"I wasn't there when the fire started," Nunnally said in his initial court appearance in Tazewell County Circuit Court.

The case was transferred to federal court by prosecutors who said they sought to imprison the defendants for longer periods than state charges might allow.